Rosita Missoni, who has died aged 93, was originally from the historic center of Italian textiles in northern Lombardy and spent decades traveling the world, making her fashion and decor brand Missoni world-famous. Nevertheless, she remained dedicated to the terroir of her homeland. The artistic, artisanal and always inventive technical skills that underpinned the company’s success for more than 70 years were all as much a part of the region as the mountains and lakes.
Her husband, Ottavio (Tai) Missoni, another founder, originally from the Adriatic coast, worked in knitting and moved to her territory when he got married. They were a combination of complementary talents. Ty is an artist with a great talent for color, choreographing how and where yarn is fed into which machines and what patterns are knitted, while at the same time she guides the company’s overall fashion direction and how its output will be used. I shaped it.
Rosita’s grandmother and mother took control of Torrani & Gelmini, a family-run factory founded in the town of Golasecca in 1921, specializing in fine embroidered lingerie and machine-knitted accessories, especially shawls. I was there.
Always aware of the interplay between colour, fabric, technology and fashion, Rosita experimented with scraps from her childhood. In 1953, the newlywed Missonis founded their own small machine knitting workshop, Maglificio Jolly, near Gallarate. This combined centuries of materials knowledge and the development of sophisticated machinery (originally funded by America’s Marshall Plan funds to revive European industry) and a new preference for informal ready-to-wear clothing. It was part of a post-war Italian movement that combined
Initially, a few machines could only manage three-color striped garments from other labels. By 1955, boutiques in Milan carried Maglificio Jolly. In 1958, Milan’s luxury department store La Rinascente purchased a collection of stripes in different colors, which they named “Missoni”. Tie and Rosita’s repertoire of patterns expanded with each new machine, from horizontal stripes to vertical stripes, from tartan to jacquard repeats.
This distinctive chevron appeared in 1962, when they discovered an updated version of the more than century-old Russell machine. Rosita recalled that her grandparents used shawls similar to silky knit shawls that reflected antique flame stitch embroidery. “That’s what you said,” he would throw the lampshade. The bold Missoni version suited the geometric print craze of the early 1960s, and Missoni was enthusiastically promoted by Anna Piaggi of Italian Vogue and Diana Vreeland in the United States.
By 1967, Missoni had stores in New York and Paris, as well as its own boutique in Milan. They presented their collections in witty shows in interesting spaces like theaters and pools around the city. They helped push the focus of Italian fashion away from crusty Florence and pretentious Rome to the artisanal city of Milan.
The next decade was Missoni’s best. First came the Art Deco revival. Thanks to Rosita’s memories, Missoni’s deco designs were affectionate, but not pastiche. Subsequently, the fashion world was enthusiastic about handmade crafts, primarily knitted products, and welcomed Missoni’s machine knits because of the associated aesthetic tradition.
And as more people traveled abroad and observed other cultures’ clothing, designers such as Kenzo Takada and Bill Gibb began creating knitted, printed, embroidered, and woven textiles with geometric and floral patterns. I experimented with outfits that I could mix and match and wear all at once.
Missoni will be able to supply everything. Rosita took regular collecting trips to places where clothing, pottery, and furniture were still happily handcrafted, and woke up early to cities across Europe in search of truffles found at flea markets. She wanted Missoni’s designs to be part of her decorative worldview and disliked waste. The appeal of knitting was that it wastes less thread than cut-and-sew. She repurposed scraps from her workshop into patchwork and rugs for her home. In 1978, the Missoni family exhibited their collection in a quarter-century retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. There their work was at home.
Rosita was born in Golasecca and was the daughter of Diamante and Angelo Gelmini. They both worked in the family business. She had two brothers, Alberto and Giampiero. Besides her education on the factory floor, she was sent to a school on the Ligurian coast for her health, and then in 1948 to London to learn English under the supervision of Swiss nuns.
The sisters took their students to Wembley Stadium to watch the track events at the Summer Olympics, where Rosita spotted handsome Ty, 10 years her senior, competing on Italy’s hurdles and relay team. They eventually arranged a suitable meeting near the statue of Eros in Piccadilly. Back in her hometown in Italy, Ty, who was designing knit jerseys and later created Italy’s uniform for the 1952 Olympics, was courted by her. Their families approved, and the two married in 1953.
Rosita and Ty decided in their late 60s, when success began to shine, that they wanted to continue to be artisan producers and live a fulfilling life while working together. They commissioned architect Enrico Buzzi to design a factory and nearby residences with views of the Alps in Smilago, less than 10 kilometers from Golasecca. Inside is a garden where crops are grown and plump chickens are raised for the children Luca, Vittorio and Angela to cook.
All three grew up and started working at the company. Luca became a menswear designer, Vittorio a marketer, and Angela took over as head of design from her parents in 1996 after adventures elsewhere.
Now Rosita, who felt she had nothing more to contribute to fashion (though her own magpie style remained imaginative to the end), was appointed creative director of Missoni’s home line, where her clothes Even when sales stopped, it maintained a steady customer appeal. – 80’s – and 2000’s – Favored in fashion.
Her decorating ideas are based on her lifelong collecting and her and Ty’s personal joy in constantly creating things for Smilago’s home.
Tai passed away in 2013, not long after Vittorio died in a plane crash. Rosita is survived by Luca and Angela (who passed on the senior design role to her daughter Margherita), as well as eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, and Alberto.
Rosita Gelmini Missoni, designer, born November 20, 1931. Died on January 1, 2025
